Connect 2008 Episode VI: The art of destruction

One of the most highly anticipated sets of this year's Connect is surely Spiritualized. They've toured their Acoustic Mainlines show to death, and prior to this frontman Jason Pierce very nearly worked himself to death. So it is with some excitement that we await their full-band, plugged-in, loud-as-fuck appearance on the Oyster Stage.

The first half of their show draws heavily from latest album Songs in A&E. It's not bad, but we're praying for some of the classics of old. This they duly deliver with She Kissed Me and It Felt Like a Hit, closely followed by the ever-brilliant Come Together, after which Pierce manages to break not one but two of his guitar strings. No sign of I Think I'm in Love or Ladies and Gentlemen..., but we're happy nonetheless.

Not to be outdone in the destruction stakes, Grinderman's Warren Ellis successfully breaks a hi-hat twice - with maracas. His partner-in-crime Nick Cave is as beguiling and irresistable as ever as they take to the same stage after Spiritualized, and he's enjoying himself. "Do something loving... to the person in front of you," he cajoles us before I Don't Need You to Set Me Free.

The combination of Cave's lanky thrusting, Ellis's Biblical beard and the red light refracted through the puffs of smoke brings to mind some medieval painter's image of the underworld. It's dark stuff, and No Pussy Blues tips us all over the edge into their firey oblivion.